Listen to midwife Emily Slocum describe delivering babies in the dark, with no running water.

Midwife Erin Fulham, left, takes care of Shannon Earle and her new baby Kiera. Daughter Riana, the father, Patrick, and his mother, Ann Earle, look on at the family's home in Takoma Park, Md., in 2011.
Amanda Steen/NPR
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Young women from all over Afghanistan's Badakhshan Province study midwifery for eighteen months in the capital city of Faizabad. The next class of students will graduate in the coming weeks -- then return to their villages.
Jim Wildman/NPR
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